MicroElectroMechanical System (MEMS) devices include microphones and speakers to mention two examples. In the case of a MEMS microphone, sound energy enters through a sound port and vibrates a diaphragm and this action creates a corresponding change in electrical potential (voltage) between the diaphragm and a back plate disposed near the diaphragm. This voltage represents the sound energy that has been received. Typically, the voltage is then transmitted to an electric circuit (e.g., an integrated circuit such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)). Further processing of the signal may be performed on the electrical circuit. For instance, amplification or filtering functions may be performed on the voltage signal at the integrated circuit.
The components of the microphone are typically disposed on a printed circuit board (PCB), which also may provide electrical connections between the microphone components as well as providing a physical support for these components. The integrated circuit typically is of a significant size such that the overall dimensions of the MEMS device depend at least somewhat upon the size of the integrated circuit.
In many applications, the size of the MEMS device is desired to be as small as possible and the above-mentioned layout of these devices has caused problems in reducing the size of devices. For example, if the MEMS device is deployed in a cellular phone or external headset it is often desirable to have the device be as small as possible. Since the integrated circuit was always deployed on the circuit board, the overall size of the device could only be reduced so far.
Because of these shortcomings, previous approaches have not adequately addressed the above-mentioned problems and user dissatisfaction with these previous approaches has increased.
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